Dave Kelly puts on a party with friends before braving a solo show

For its 17th edition, Dave Kelly Live is going folksy and then on March 7, Kelly is going out on a limb to help raise money for Theatre Junction Grand.

For his Feb. 14 Valentine’s Day show, Dave Kelly is partnering with the Calgary Folk Music Festival. By showcasing Leeroy Stagger, Kalle Mattson, Shakura S’Aida and filmmaker Sharon Lewis, Kelly’s show at Theatre Junction Grand will be a sneak preview of the Folk Festival’s Block Heater 2018, which runs Feb. 15-17 at the Ironwood and Festival Hall in Inglewood and Studio Bell and the King Eddy in the East Village.

“I’ve always felt that Valentine’s Day is a holiday with few upsides. If you’re not in a relationship, you feel left out, and if you are, you’re bound to obsess about whether you’re getting things right or not.

“I decided Valentine’s Day was an ideal time to program a Dave Kelly Live show because we’re going to do everything for you. All you need to do is show up with your partner, with a friend, family or even by yourself if you choose because we’ll all be having fun together,” says Kelly.

“Love is as complicated as it is joyful which is why artists write so many love songs so I decided we should use music and art as a fun way to talk about and celebrate the crazy, confusing, complicated thing we call love.”

Leeroy Stagger will join Dave Kelly Live.Calgary

In addition to singer/songwriters Stagger and Mattson, Kelly will showcase Toronto filmmaker Sharon Lewis who is bringing her new sci-fi film Brown Girl Begins to Block Heater 2018 and will show a clip from the movie and talk about its journey from page to screen.

One of the film’s stars is Shakura S’Aida who Kelly says “is not only a great actress but a dynamite singer.”

Also on board for the love fest is DKL’s house band The Flat Whites led by Russ Broom, and the show’s in-house artist Mandy Stobo, who creates collages to complement Kelly’s monologues and conversations with his guests.

Tickets for DKL Valentine’s Show, which starts at 7:30 p.m. at Theatre Junction Grand, are available at the door or in advance at davekellylive.com.

IF ALICE CAN GO DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE, SO CAN DAVE KELLY

Back in January, the folks at Theatre Junction asked Kelly if he would help them with a fundraiser and promised they had a really fun project for him.

They asked if he would perform the solo show White Rabbit Red Rabbit by Iranian dissident playwright Nassim Soleimanpour.

“I told Theatre Junction I’d love to help them with their fundraiser and to send me a copy of the play so I could read it,” recalls Kelly.

Ah, but there’s the rub!

The actor who performs White Rabbit Red Rabbit is not allowed to see the script until he or she is already on stage in front of the audience. At that point, someone brings the actor a sealed envelope.

“I open the envelope and begin reading and let the words motivate me.

“The only direction I’ve been given is that once I start, I have to finish. No matter what. It sounds terrifying and fun all at the same time,” Kelly said.

“The more I thought about that process, the more I realized it’s a lot like what I do with each Dave Kelly Live show. I never really know what’s going to happen until I start talking at the top of the show.”

When Soleimanpour wrote White Rabbit Red Rabbit in 2010, he sent it outside Iran to be performed because he was not allowed to leave his country. It was his plea for tolerance and freedom of speech.

The play premiered the following year in the Edinburgh Summerworks festival. By the time Soleimanpour was allowed to leave Iran in 2013, White Rabbit Red Rabbit had been performed more than 200 times in more than 15 languages.

When Kelly takes the stage at Theatre Junction Grand on March 7, he’ll be joining the prestigious company of those who have gone before, such as F. Murray Abraham, Martin Short, Whoopi Goldberg, Nathan Lane, David Hyde Pierce, Alan Cumming and Andrea Martin.

Tickets for the fundraiser are $50 and are available at theatrejunction.com. There will be canapés and a bar in the theatre that evening.

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